About Foundation Trusts

NHS Foundation Trusts are hospitals or groups of hospitals or other organisations providing general, specialist, mental health, community or ambulance services to the local population.

Being a Foundation Trust has previously allowed us to improve our services and retain any surpluses we generate, or borrow money to support investments.

Foundation Trusts ensure local accountability for what they do through their Council of Governors and the Trust's members with local communities at the heart of the way a Foundation Trust operates. You can have your say and influence our future by becoming a governor or a Trust member.

The process for becoming a Foundation Trust involved rigorous financial, governance and quality of care assessments with regular checking on progress throughout the year. Having previously been regulated by Monitor, this has now changed to NHS Improvement.

How NHS Foundation Trusts Work

As a Foundation Trust, we are governed by a Board of Directors and the Council of Governors.

Like all NHS Foundation Trusts, there are three components:

• Membership Community: This includes staff, patients and carers and the public.  Membership is open to anyone over 16 who has either been a patient or carer at our hospitals, is a member of staff, or who lives in our defined catchment area. Our  staff are also members. 
• Council of Governors: 28 governors including the Trust Chair - who also chairs the Council - elected public and staff governors. NHS partner and local authority representatives are appointed by the relevant organisation in discussion with us and in line with the Trust's Constitution. 
• Board of Directors: This includes Executive and Non Executive Directors, both voting and non voting, and the Trust Secretary. 

 To view the Trust's Constitution please click on the link.